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Download Barbara Thayer-Bacon 1 Fallibilism Entails Pluralism by Barbara J. Thayer-Bacon, Ph. D. Associate Professor University of Tennessee Cultural Studies Knoxville, TN 37996-2700 (w)865-974-9505 (h)865-560-9050 fax#865-974-8981 E-mail: [email protected] Prepared for American Educational Studies Association Annual Conference, Vancouver, BC, Canada November 1-5, 2000 Paper Presentation 2 Biography: Barbara Thayer-Bacon is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Administration and Cultural Studies, University of Tennessee. Her primary areas of scholarship are philosophy of education, critical thinking, epistemology, feminist theory, and educational reform. Fallibilism Entails Pluralism INTRODUCTION Harvey Siegel tells us he embraces Peirce's theory of fallibilism (belief in the impossibility of attaining knowledge that is certain), and he claims most philosophers today do so as well.1 Yet, within classic pragmatism there is disagreement on what fallibilism entails and these disagreements still exist today between current pragmatist philosophers. In their own lifetimes Peirce, and Dewey each published essays publicly declaring their views differed from each other, and from James, while James tended to consider his views as being in alignment with both Peirce and Dewey. It appears today that James and Dewey were more in agreement, and they both differed from Peirce. The difference lies in their ontology in relation to their epistemology, for Peirce fought to hang on to a concept of absolutism, and James and Dewey worked to dissolve the absolutism/relativism dichotomy, each in their own unique ways.2 Charlene Haddock Seigfried defines pragmatism as embracing fallibilism and pluralism (belief in the impossibility of attaining knowledge that is universal).3 While this is true for James and Dewey, this does not accurately describe Peirce's position. Peirce strove to distinguish his pragmaticism from pragmatism because pragmatism had come to denote a concern with actions/events and to be associated with pluralism and the qualified relativism it implies.4 Peirce postulates a real world that is mind-independent: "That is real which has such and such characters, whether anybody thinks it to have 3 those characters or not. At any rate, that is the sense in which the pragmaticist uses the word." 5 Peirce also holds to the existence of universals and general principles operative in nature. "Despite his stress on the contingency and revisability of scientific claims and theories, Peirce preserves the permanency and independence of what those claims and theories are about." 6 Thus, we can describe Peirce as offering a non-vulgar absolutism, for he clearly recognizes historical contingency and contextuality, the fallibility of inquirers, and the need to provide a method for achieving revisability of knowledge-claims. Peirce insists on the need for continual critical assessment of epistemological criteria that are corrigible, and he turns to the scientific method and logic to fulfill that need. Yet, Peirce preserves a final grounding of knowledge claims in his postulation of real existents and the "external permanency," which exits independent of human thought. Peirce offered a theory of synechism, which was "intended to connect the real--…with what is 'destined' to be believed as a consequence of the continuity of experimental inquiry."7 Chris McCarthy labels Peirce's view "pragmatic realism."8 Unfortunately, Peirce's hold on to a destined reality that is mind-independent points us back to the binary logic of absolutism/relativism that James and Dewey worked so hard to dissolve. Dewey credits Peirce as being "notable among writers on logical theory for his explicit recognition of the necessity of the social factor in the determination of evidence and its probative force."9 Peirce did not think truth is found by one person seeking it on his own, it is found by us testing out our ideas with others, as a community of scholars.10 Since individual's are limited, contextual beings who are fallible, it is only possible to get closer, and clearer on our understanding of Truth if we are able to explain and test out our ideas with others. Ideally, we learn and share what we learn with others, as a community of scholars seeking Truth, and working together toward that goal. 4 However, Peirce carefully restricts his community of scholars to scientists who are involved in rational inquiry and are considered experts in their fields of study. Given Peirce's pragmatic realism and his doctrine of synechism, it makes sense that it is only important to him to include those who are considered most knowledgable in discussions attempting to further advance knowledge. Peirce does not describe "others" (nonexperts) as needing to be necessarily included in the discussion for not everyone has the background knowledge necessary to do the investigating. Unfortunately, Peirce's community of scholars is not friendly to feminists, for science has a long history of excluding women and not considering them as equal members of the scholastic community (as does philosophy). This exclusionary move by Peirce is one that has the dangerous potential of limiting our inquirying as well as reassuring inquirers they need not worry about trying to negotiate with others who are not considered members of the scientific community. I want to use this paper to argue that (e)pistemological fallibilism (belief in the impossibility of attaining knowledge that is certain) entails the need to embrace pluralism in the sense of including others, outsider views, in the inquiry process. I make this argument not just on moral grounds, for I certainly agree that it is morally wrong to exclude others, but I want to make this argument on epistemological grounds as well. My argument will be based on the position that (e)pistemological fallibilism entails (e)pistemological pluralism (belief in the impossibility of attaining knowledge that is universal), in agreement with James and contra to Peirce. My argument has tremendous educational implications that I will turn to at the end. Harvey Siegel has recently made an argument against inclusion on epistemic grounds, fairly representing Peirce’s community of scholars view, so my plan is to begin with Siegel's position. Then I will consider feminist contributions to this debate, as qualified relativists. By the end, it should be clear what my qualified relativist position is, and how it differs from Siegel's 5 non-vulgar absolutism.11 Our differences follow the same lines as that which distinguishes Peirce from James and Dewey. FALLIBILISM DOES NOT ENTAIL PLURALISM Peirce uses the standard of relevant qualifications or expertise to exclude "nonexperts." Given Harvey Siegel's agreement with Peirce's pragmatic realism and his doctrine of synechism, it should come as no surprise that Siegel presents a present day argument that exclusion on the basis of lack of relevant qualifications or expertise, or failure to meet relevant standards, is both permissible and consistent with the ideal of inclusion. Let's trace the lines of Siegel's argument.12 In his Presidential address to the Philosophy of Education Society in 1995, "What Price Inclusion?," Siegel defines inclusionary discourses and theories as "discourses which seek out, make room for, and take seriously, and theories which adequately reflect, the voices, views, and interests of all, especially those who are and have traditionally been excluded from discussion and/or consideration" (p. 168). He argues, ala Kant, that we should endorse the ideal of inclusion on moral grounds. To exclude is to fail to treat people with respect. However, he goes on to argue that we should not endorse inclusion on epistemic grounds, that "inclusive theories are not in general more likely than exclusive theories to be true, or justified, and inclusive discourses are not in general more likely than exclusive discourses to yield such epistemically worthy theories; there is no necessary connection between inclusion and epistemic worthiness, or between exclusion and epistemic defectiveness" (p. 171). Siegel turns to science for examples to show that common shared beliefs people held have not yielded Truth but rather have turned out to be false (e.g. the earth is flat, handling frogs causes warts). Siegel also turns to science for examples that exclusion does not necessarily lead to false claims (e.g. many of the claims of contemporary science which were forged in exclusionary discourses, yet enjoy impressive epistemic 6 credentials, such as jet airplanes and radio transmissions). He concludes: "Since inclusion is routinely conjoined with epistemic weakness, and exclusion with epistemic strength, it is a mistake to regard inclusion as an epistemic virtue. Rather, inclusion is a moral virtue, and should be valued as such" (p. 172). While Siegel is not willing to grant that people and groups deserve inclusion because of any special epistemic privilege they enjoy, or because including them necessarily increases the probability of obtaining true or justified theories, he is willing to acknowledge that "inclusion, by adding previously ignored perspectives to scientific research and debate, can and often does serve to correct and enhance ongoing theorizing" (p. 172).13 However Siegel considers this qualification a matter of principles of conduct for inquiry, not criteria of evaluation of the products of inquiry.14 Any theory can be defective, and not necessarily because it has been exclusive, but for many reasons, including lack of information, inadequate sources of evidence, etc. And inclusive theories can also be defective, due to lack of imagination or failure to criticize theoretical presuppositions, for example (p. 172). Siegel is willing to admit that mainstream philosophy excludes others by relying of disciplinary standards that are portrayed as unbiased and neutral, which in fact are not. He credits recent feminist scholarship for exposing the ways in which extant standards are defective. The admittance of faulty standards should lead us to conclude the need to reject our current standards for ones that are superior, not to reject standards altogether.
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